How is Your Marketing Plan Coming Along?

Be honest. Do you have a written marketing plan? Well, join the other 95% of lawyers who don’t – at least that is the percentage of business people that don’t have one according to Drew McLellan over at Small Business Branding. And I agree. Further, I concur with Drew that a “To Do List” doesn’t count.

His excellent post “What is your lack of planning costing you?” is short and sweet. First, he cites a number of anonymous sayings we can all agree with, which is why his point about the costs of failing to plan is right on target. Specifically:

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

“Measure twice, cut once.”

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

What I liked most was his five reasons why a lack of planning is so costly:

Spend more money

Reach fewer of the right people

Be swayed by persuasive sales people rather than staying the course

Be less efficient

Grow your business more slowly, if at all

Finally, I couldn’t resist adding a couple of my favorite adages (authors unknown) when it comes to planning:

“When all’s said and done, a lot more is said than done.”

“Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal.”

As both a lawyer and a non-law firm business leader, I have seen first hand the results of ineffective marketing. Even though the practice of law is a profession first, it has to operate as a well-functioning business to survive. Too often the survival of a law practice is more because of happenstance than sound business practices. Even a lawyer in a solo practice should have a written marketing plan to do things like identify its niche, define its brand, assess its market and outline a strategy for increasing its market penetration.